The Shadow of the Solar Face of Scorpio
Astrologically speaking, the 6 of Cups represents the second decan (or face) of Scorpio. This is one of 3-10 degree subdivisions of Scorpio. Scorpio is ruled by Mars, and each decan (short for the Latin "decanante") has its own ruler as well. In the case of the second decan of Scorpio, that decan ruler is the Sun. I've had more trouble reconciling the astrological significance of this card with the image drawn on it than probably any other of the Minor Arcana. This was largely due to my failure to make the connection for some time that it represents a subdivision of Scorpio ruled by the Sun and does not represent the Sun in Scorpio. In other words, I was confusing a portion of a Zodiacal sign for a planet in a sign.
Even so, I had an epiphany regarding one of the possible meanings for this card with the astrological placement, Sun in Scorpio, in mind whose merit I think holds true. I was watching the show Mad Men when this happened. The show's protagonist, Donald Draper, was pitching a sales campaign for a client's product, a projector, when he said some things that conjured up, for me at least, the image of the 6 of Cups, and which also carried some heavily Scorpionic themes.
The idyllic backdrop of a quiet town square, where an adult sniffs one of 6 lilies that is being presented to them by a child always said to me, aside from the obvious tranquility and sense of being home, "nostalgia!" more than anything else.
I never realized before, though, that nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. Hearing that made me realize all at once that this card represents at its core, at least potentially, a longing. The suit is cups, so it is a theme rooted in emotion and feeling. Scorpio is a water sign, but it is ruled by a fiery planet (Mars). It is ruled by emotion, elemental water, but it is water that is boiling and steaming. Of the three water signs, Scorpio is the most reactive. Pisces is just two fish swimming naked into the depths. Cancer's hard shell denotes the notoriously guarded nature it imparts upon its natives. It maybe has more teeth (or claw as it were) than people like to give it credit for, but Cancer is still soft as soft can be on the inside. Scorpio has the shell and the claws. It is equally well guarded, but goes a step further. For Scorpio, one of only two Martial signs, the best defense is a good offense. If there is somebody you know well who has 3 or 4 planets in Scorpio in their natal chart, you've probably made the observation that one of the bigger challenges in their life is not letting their emotional sensitivity cause them to lash out at people wildly, to the extent that it amounts to self-sabotage. Inherent in the act of unsheathing one's sword is the danger of it being driven into one's own heart instead of the target's. Recklessness is the difference between this outcome being a possibility or an eventuality.
The Buddha said that desire is the root of all suffering. So the question that this card raises is whether it represents the original picturesque scene itself, a spontaneous remembrance that leaves us feeling warm and contented on the inside, or a craving to be back in a place to which we can never return, since, if you really think about it, the past is nothing but a memory, and the future doesn't exist. There is only ever the present. We can only really be satisfied when we are enthusiastically saying "YES!" to what is. Nostalgia, the 6 of Cups, is potentially sugar-coated poison. It wasn't anything ugly that turned Darth Vader evil. It was his love for his mother, his wife, and his unborn children, tainted by his misguided ideas about these things, and his inability to let them go when the time came. Ironically, his attempts to cling to his family were ultimately the very reason that the ghastly scene of his wife dying painfully in childbirth, which had been visited upon him in a vision, came to pass.
Sometimes we want the fairy tale, the happily ever after -- or maybe some time long passed when we were a child and the weight of the world didn't feel so heavy -- so desperately that we become far more estranged from our own inherent mindful presence than is good for us. We start to live in a dark place, with only the light of a fantasy to guide us. Instead of growing toward the Sun, we become bent and twisted, like a tree who didn't get enough sustenance, and who has been relentlessly pruned by a harsh coastal wind. We can cling to something so tightly that, in our fervor to protect our own interests, we sting the people and drive away the situations that would have actually brought us what we so desperately wanted. More than anybody else, we sting ourselves.
"...In Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a space ship. It's a time machine. It goes backwards. And forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel. It's called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around. And back home again. To a place where we know we are loved."
The idyllic backdrop of a quiet town square, where an adult sniffs one of 6 lilies that is being presented to them by a child always said to me, aside from the obvious tranquility and sense of being home, "nostalgia!" more than anything else.
I never realized before, though, that nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. Hearing that made me realize all at once that this card represents at its core, at least potentially, a longing. The suit is cups, so it is a theme rooted in emotion and feeling. Scorpio is a water sign, but it is ruled by a fiery planet (Mars). It is ruled by emotion, elemental water, but it is water that is boiling and steaming. Of the three water signs, Scorpio is the most reactive. Pisces is just two fish swimming naked into the depths. Cancer's hard shell denotes the notoriously guarded nature it imparts upon its natives. It maybe has more teeth (or claw as it were) than people like to give it credit for, but Cancer is still soft as soft can be on the inside. Scorpio has the shell and the claws. It is equally well guarded, but goes a step further. For Scorpio, one of only two Martial signs, the best defense is a good offense. If there is somebody you know well who has 3 or 4 planets in Scorpio in their natal chart, you've probably made the observation that one of the bigger challenges in their life is not letting their emotional sensitivity cause them to lash out at people wildly, to the extent that it amounts to self-sabotage. Inherent in the act of unsheathing one's sword is the danger of it being driven into one's own heart instead of the target's. Recklessness is the difference between this outcome being a possibility or an eventuality.
"Nostalgia...is a twinge in your heart more powerful than memory alone...it's a time machine. It takes us back to a place where we ache to be again."
The Buddha said that desire is the root of all suffering. So the question that this card raises is whether it represents the original picturesque scene itself, a spontaneous remembrance that leaves us feeling warm and contented on the inside, or a craving to be back in a place to which we can never return, since, if you really think about it, the past is nothing but a memory, and the future doesn't exist. There is only ever the present. We can only really be satisfied when we are enthusiastically saying "YES!" to what is. Nostalgia, the 6 of Cups, is potentially sugar-coated poison. It wasn't anything ugly that turned Darth Vader evil. It was his love for his mother, his wife, and his unborn children, tainted by his misguided ideas about these things, and his inability to let them go when the time came. Ironically, his attempts to cling to his family were ultimately the very reason that the ghastly scene of his wife dying painfully in childbirth, which had been visited upon him in a vision, came to pass.
Sometimes we want the fairy tale, the happily ever after -- or maybe some time long passed when we were a child and the weight of the world didn't feel so heavy -- so desperately that we become far more estranged from our own inherent mindful presence than is good for us. We start to live in a dark place, with only the light of a fantasy to guide us. Instead of growing toward the Sun, we become bent and twisted, like a tree who didn't get enough sustenance, and who has been relentlessly pruned by a harsh coastal wind. We can cling to something so tightly that, in our fervor to protect our own interests, we sting the people and drive away the situations that would have actually brought us what we so desperately wanted. More than anybody else, we sting ourselves.
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